Bengaluru-based real estate developer Puravankara Group has struck a deal to raise $76 million (Rs 556 crore) from World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and IFC Emerging Asia Fund (EAF), the company said in a statement.
The funds will be used to develop four residential projects under Puravankara’s affordable housing arm Provident. The company will develop two of the planned projects in Kochi and Bengaluru while the other two projects will be identified in 2021.
Puravankara’s current deal with IFC and EAF is a mix of debt and equity. Of the total deal size of Rs 556 crore, IFC and EAF will put in around Rs 240 crore (approximately $33 million) each across special purpose vehicles while the rest Rs 76 crore will be given as a loan by IFC.
In a recent interaction with VCCircle, Abhishek Kapoor, chief operation officer, said that the company has a strong pipeline of launches for this financial year. “Out of the 11 launches planned for this year, 4 projects have already been launched and the rest will be launched in the coming few quarters,” he said.
Puravankara, which has a presence across residential, commercial and warehousing spaces, has also been ramping up its commercial portfolio lately. It aims to build an office space portfolio of 12 million square feet in the next few years. It’s work on adding more warehouses to its portfolio has also been sped up in the last few years.
For warehousing, the developer has tied up with Morgan Stanley to build and own such assets in the country.
Meanwhile, IFC, which invests across asset classes in India, has been an active investor in India’s affordable housing segment and has backed a bunch of developers across markets. Recently, it struck a deal to invest up to Rs 550 crore ($75 million) in a warehousing fund of industrial real estate developer IndoSpace.
Prior to that, it agreed to finance an affordable housing project of North India-based developer Signature Global.
Apart from lending to companies and lending institutions, IFC backs private equity and venture capital funds in India. It also has an active direct private equity-style investment practice in the country.
